Wednesday – Love Sends and Saves
Each night before bed, Alayna and I sing “Jesus Loves Me” with our boys. It’s a simple song but one I want our boys to know by heart. I want them to know without a doubt the profound truth that Jesus loves each of them. It’s a simple, powerful truth for all of us: Jesus loves me.
But how do you know Jesus loves you? If someone walked up to you today and asked how you knew that Jesus loves you, what would you say?
The sermon text from Sunday says this:
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)
There are two ways found in these verses that God has shown without a doubt that He loves us. First, God sent His one and only Son into the world. Jesus left heaven for you. Jesus left perfection and comfort to enter a world of brokenness and pain for you. Jesus gave up power and took on human weakness for you. Jesus exchanged glory for humility for you. Jesus became a servant for you. How do we know Jesus loves us? He was sent into our world.
The second way Jesus shows His love for us as described in these verses is that He became the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Our sin – our failures, faults, disobedience to God, our wandering from God, our ungodly desires – has separated us from God. Our sin constantly interferes and disrupts our relationship with God. Jesus came to reconcile us to God – He came to make us “at-one” with God by removing our sin. Jesus gave up His very life to take on God’s wrath for the evil and sin in the world and in us. He willingly laid down His life in exchange that we might live and be united with God. Jesus has show His love for us by giving His very life.
So the next time someone asks you or you question Jesus’ love for you, remember that Christ has shown His love through entering our world at Christmas and at the cross when He gave His life for yours. You are loved!
Blessings, Luke Justice